


so let me hold both your hands in the holes of my sweater

by hyungs



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-29
Updated: 2013-09-29
Packaged: 2017-12-27 22:00:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/984104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyungs/pseuds/hyungs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>it makes being a pie baker difficult, but kris knows the rules for his little magic trick by now, is usually careful enough to follow them: first touch brings back life, and the second touch takes it away again. pushing daisies au.</p>
            </blockquote>





	so let me hold both your hands in the holes of my sweater

**Author's Note:**

> also on [livejournal](http://hyungs.livejournal.com/726.html).

"shit," kris swears as he touches a strawberry once on purpose, then again on accident. he watches in dismay as it blooms bright red for a millisecond before withering away into a mottled brown again under his fingers. sighing, he tosses the rotted strawberry into the small mountain of browned fruits piling up in the trash bin. 

it's been a long day at kris's krisp pies with nothing to show for it; two pies baked in three times as many hours and orders piling up more than kris can manage. at least this time, he only ruined a single strawberry. the last pie he'd been working on, he had somehow managed to brush his fingers across the entire top layer of the pie while walking it over to the oven. 

he wants to give in and call it a day, but zitao had begged him to finish this strawberry rhubarb pie by tomorrow, and kris had never been able to resist his favourite customer. gritting his teeth, he reaches over for another dead strawberry, carefully cradling it as it comes back to life under his fingers.

it makes being a pie baker difficult, but kris knows the rules for his little magic trick by now, is usually careful enough to follow them: first touch brings back life, and the second touch takes it away again.

 

kris is just setting the last layer of rhubarb in the pie crust when he hears someone entering the kitchen. he can't help but smile when he looks up and sees; it's baekhyun standing at the doorway, fussing as he tries to untie his apron after closing up the storefront. from where kris is standing, he can see that baekhyun is just tangling the knots up more and more, while baekhyun is becoming more and more annoyed.

kris laughs, the first time he has in a few hours. "stop torturing that poor apron and come here," he calls out, gesturing baekhyun over. 

baekhyun fakes an exaggerated startle, theatrically looking around the room before his eyes settle on kris. "kris! i didn't think it was you talking to me," baekhyun drawls while walking over. "considering the fact that you decided not to gift us poor waiters with your presence for the entire day." he's mock glaring at kris, but by the time he's crossed the kitchen floor, the glare in his eyes has turned into thin crescents to match his beaming smile. 

kris chuckles sheepishly. "sorry about that," he says, putting his hands carefully on baekhyun's waist, urging him to turn around so kris can get at the offending ties. "i've been kind of having an off day. my hands have been especially clumsy today." 

baekhyun hums and shifts towards kris, giving him better access to the mess of knots on the back of the apron. "how so?" 

"oh, you know," kris says absentmindedly, concentrating on the seriously impossible knots baekhyun had worked into the apron. "i kept accidentally retouching the fruit. ruined a whole pie and then some." kris works at the apron carefully, even more so when baekhyun's shifting flashes a bit of skin under the hem of his shirt. kris is all too aware of what would happen if his fingers were to graze across baekhyun's skin. 

baekhyun winces sympathetically. "ouch. well, are you almost done for the day?"

"yeah, this last pie just needs to go in the oven and i'm done," kris says. triumphantly, he undoes the last of the ties. "now i just need to not touch any part of it before i actually get it there." he pats baekhyun on the shoulder to signal that he's done, and baekhyun shoots him a smile of thanks before walking over to the hook by the door to hang up the apron. kris uses the time to snag the pie to cautiously slip it into the oven, and heaves a breath of relief when he makes it without any disasters. he sets the timer before plopping down on his stool, sprawling his arms lazily over the counter. "and now, the wait." he could be using this time to roll out more dough for tomorrow, but he's already made the executive decision to push all pie thoughts out of his mind. he's had enough for today.

baekhyun hops up to sit on the counter, legs swinging, hands a careful distance away from kris's outstretched arms. "i'll wait with you."

"are you sure? waiting for pie to bake isn't the most exciting way to spend a weeknight," kris says, watching the slender slope of baekhyun's fingers where they're hooked on the edge of the countertop. kris can think of a million things he'd rather do with baekhyun instead. things he can't do with baekhyun.

baekhyun shrugs. "there's worse ways to pass time. being dead, for one," he says sarcastically. baekhyun had taken the 'being risen from the dead' thing with surprising ease, kris had to admit. his eyes go soft, though, when his hand lands cautiously on the sleeve of kris's shirt, far from the hem where fabric meets skin. "besides, i like spending time with you."

kris's throat goes suddenly dry. he wants to reach across and grab baekhyun's hand. instead, he just rasps out a "me, too." 

there's a somber kind of silence hanging between them, but only for a moment; baekhyun's too lively, too good to let heaviness linger for long. 

"hey, what's this for?" he asks, leaning away from kris to grab a box he spies crooked in the corner of the counter, against the wall. 

kris peers over. "oh, it's just a box of non-latex gloves," he says. "i use them when i'm cleaning the kitchen." baekhyun is looking at him strangely, like he's suddenly grown an extra head, or perhaps confessed a hidden desire to become a rapper. "i'm allergic to latex," kris explains, slightly perplexed. his allergies didn't warrant _that_ much attention.

"kris," baekhyun says slowly, as if were speaking to a child. "did it ever occur to you that you could maybe put on these gloves when you're _making your pies_? so you don't keep killing all of the fruit?"

kris blinks dumbly at him once, twice, before the words actually sink in. "i -- i never thought of that." for five years, kris has been using the gloves when cleaning the kitchen, and he never once thought to use them to stop himself from killing fruit. _how._

baekhyun huffs a sound of pure disbelief, like he's thinking the same exact thing as he pulls a glove out of the box. "honestly, i don't know what you'd do without me." impatiently, he shakes the single glove in front of kris's face. "well come on then, let's test out my theory."

kris warily takes the glove, careful not to let their fingers touch, and slips it over his right hand. with his bare left hand, he grabs a dead strawberry from a nearby bowl. it instantly ripens again in his hand. he glances up at baekhyun uncertainly. "here goes nothing, i guess." he holds his breath as he transfers the bright red strawberry from left hand to right, waiting for it to shrink again into nothingness. "holy shit," he breathes, staring where the fruit still is, red and alive in his hand. obviously, what baekhyun had said had made sense, but for kris, it's another feeling entirely to actually be able to hold onto a fruit for more than a few seconds. 

"yah, i told you it'd work," baekhyun crows smugly from his countertop perch. he holds his hand out in a grabby motion and kicks at kris's knee. "honestly, a five year old probably could have figured that out. now give it here, i'm hungry." 

kris looks at baekhyun's hand before his gaze slides up to baekhyun's face, considering. this thing between them is still so new, and a little bit (a lot) weird, but. kris holds out his arm, fingers curled delicately around the leaves of the strawberry. baekhyun looks confused at first, but realization dawns on his face, what kris wants him to do. kris forgets to breathe again, waiting to see how baekhyun will react, waiting to see if they're going to keep dancing around this thing of theirs, if baekhyun will end it right here.

slowly, baekhyun leans forward and takes the strawberry in his mouth, biting off just before the leaves. baekhyun's lips graze kris's fingertips, and even through the thin layer of vinyl, kris feels it like he's been run through with a jolt of electricity. he watches intently as baekhyun chews, watches baekhyun's throat work as he swallows. baekhyun's staring right back, and the tension in the room is there again, but different this time, somehow. more hopeful this time. 

"it's good," baekhyun says, and when he cracks a smile, the tension in the room bleeds out, too. _we're good._

kris smiles back, wide and gummy and relieved. "so i guess it's okay if i do this, huh," he says, and reaches out again with his gloved hand, this time to wipe at the red staining baekhyun's mouth. baekhyun startles at the touch at first, but quickly relaxes into it. kris can't stop swiping his thumb across baekhyun's bottom lip, even when the stain is long gone, still a little shell shocked that he's allowed to do this.

"hey," baekhyun complains, snapping kris out of his daze. "you're going to rub my entire lip off." kris makes to move his hand away, apologies halfway up his throat, but baekhyun just takes kris's hand in his and intertwines their fingers together. "better," baekhyun proclaims, a pleased flush tinting his cheeks. 

kris grins. his wrist is going to start cramping and he's pretty sure his palm is beyond acceptable levels of sweaty right now, but he doesn't let go. somehow, this feels like the most intimate thing kris has done. 

 

the first time kris ever kissed someone, his lips had tingled a little, but that was it. the brush of the girl's lips against his had paled in comparison to the gut-wrenching feeling of giving, taking life away. what was the point of so much touching without meaning?

he still feels a tightness in his throat when he brings things (and sometimes, people) back to life, though it's dulled since then, but he still avoids touch with people when he can. somehow, it's just never seemed worth it.

 

but here he is now, sitting in a messy kitchen and awkwardly holding hands with baekhyun, who feels more alive than any person kris has ever known, and kris can't imagine not being able to touch, not when he can have baekhyun smiling at him, hands clasped between them like they're in middle school again and this is the end of the year dance. 

"i'm glad that i made you alive again. i mean, uh - " kris stumbles over his words. he's definitely feeling like a middle schooler confessing his crush. "not that i'm glad that you were dead in the first place. it's just nice, you being alive again. re-alive. i'm just. happy you're alive," kris says lamely, and distantly wonders who he has to blame for his chronic case of foot-in-mouth disease.

thankfully, baekhyun's looking at him with that twinkle in his eyes, the one that means he thinks kris's awkwardness is somehow cute and endearing. "it's cute to see someone as good looking as you stumble over all over their words," baekhyun had teased at the end of their first week together, when kris had looked wide-eyed and panicked every time he made an offhanded comment about death.

"i'm glad you made me alive again, too," baekhyun says now, in the same teasing tone. "even if it does mean that i'm probably going to have constantly sweaty palms from now on." he grimaces a little as he unsticks his hand from kris's. 

kris absolutely does not miss the warmth. 

suddenly, baekhyun grabs another glove from the box and slides it on his own hand. he hops off the counter and stands in between kris's thighs, close enough that kris could probably count each eyelash. "hey," he says, playfully enough to almost cover his nervous bounce. "let me pretend for a second, okay?" 

before kris can ask what he's pretending, baekhyun has his gloved palm pressed against kris's mouth. kris barely registers it when baekhyun's lips follow swiftly after, pecking his own knuckles in an imitation of a kiss. "since i can't actually kiss you," baekhyun explains. his hand is still covering kris's mouth and he's worrying at his own lips now, looking at kris like he's expecting rejection. like kris could ever say no to him.

"pretending's good," kris muffles against baekhyun's hand. just in case baekhyun doesn't hear him though, kris brings his right hand up and cautiously guides baekhyun's face closer again. baekhyun's eyes light up, and then they're closing for their second kiss.

in all honesty, it should feel ridiculous, kissing the palm of baekhyun's hand. in any other situation, on any other day, kris would probably laugh awkwardly, push away from the plasticky feel of vinyl. for now though, kris lets his eyes flutter shut and plays pretend as the smell of strawberries fills the room.


End file.
